Paizo’s “The Emerald Spire” for 5th Edition, Part 1

Late last year, Paizo Kickstarted a superdungeon called “The Emerald Spire“. Along with the characteristicly beautiful production value and stunning art, each of the 16 levels of this detailed module has its own fold-out map in the style of Paizo’s other excellent flip-maps, making it a very easy crawl to run.

I recently decided to host a series of all-day “Retro 80s” Game Days for my players who never had the opportunity to come home from school on Friday afternoons and game non-stop until Sunday night, fueled on little more than Mountain Dew and Cheetos. Since I had backed the Kickstarter at a level where I received all eight double-sided maps as well as the campaign cards, I decided to convert “The Emerald Spire” to 5th edition to use as my old-school dungeon crawl.

The module’s base of operations, Fort Inevitable, requires little conversion as most of the conflicts there are political rather than physical. The dungeon’s levels are designed to equal the PC levels, meaning at 1st level the characters should be able to take on level 1, and by 8th level they should be able to handle level 8. As my players started at level 3, I needed to increase the power of each level a bit.

Below you will find some of my conversion notes for Level 1. You will not find detailed information on the Emerald Spire. If you aren’t running “The Emerald Spire”, you may still find these new monsters, weapons, and initiative system helpful for your personal campaign.

Strength Trait: Creatures without the requisite Strength score make attack rolls with these weapons at disadvantage, as well as treat the weapon’s range and damage as a normal longbow. A small creature without the requisite Strength score cannot use the weapon at all.

A note on Keen Senses: I’ve added a +5 bonus to Passive Perception to any creature that has advantage on Perception checks. You might wish to allow a character with proficiency in Nature or Survival to read the winds around an encounter with any creature with a bonus to Passive Perception based on smell. A DC 10 check could show them a better way to approach from downwind to negate the bonus.

Deadfall Trap

Falling rubble trap that fills a 10′ x 10′ square. Creatures in the area when the trap falls must make a DC 12 Dexterity save or take 13 (4d6) damage and become pinned under the rubble. A pinned character is prone and restrained (DC 20 Strength check from under the rubble or outside ends both conditions), as well as stunned for 1 round. A successful save reduces the damage to 7 (2d6) and allows the character to dive to either side of the rubble.

Shield Master.If within 5′ of its charge when the charge is the target of an attack, the automaton guardian may use his reaction to move up to 5’ and force the attack roll to be made against him instead.

Electrical Explosion. Once the automaton guardian is reduced to 10 hit points or lower it begins to arc electricity from his power core. Any creatures within 5 feet must make a DC 12 Dex save at the end of their turn or take 2d10 (10) electrical damage (half damage on a successful save; creatures wearing metal armor or wearing a metal shield make the save at disadvantage). At the end of the automaton guardian’s next round, it explodes, forcing a DC 14 Dex save to all creatures within 10 feet or take 4d10 (20) electrical damage (half damage on successful save). If reduced to 0 hit points before its turn, the automaton guardian’s broken body sparks as above until the end of its next turn, then explodes.

Antimagic Susceptibility. The automaton guardian is incapacitated while in the area of an antimagic field. If targeted by a dispel magic spell, it must succeed on a Constitution save against the caster’s spell DC or become unconscious for 1 minute.

ActionsMultiattack. The automaton guardian can make 2 glaive attacks as an action.

Rich Howard's obsession with gaming started 35 years ago when his older brother finally let him invade his AD&D game. Since his first sleep spell, Rich has wandered the world of roleplaying, board and computer games as fascinated with their potential to teach and inspire as to entertain.